Ghislaine Maxwell appeals sex crimes conviction, sentence

Disgraced former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has appealed her conviction and 20-year sentence for helping late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls, a court filing showed Thursday.

Her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim filed the appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit last week, the docket showed.

The document did not detail Maxwell's arguments for throwing out the conviction, but her attorneys have previously claimed that a juror biased the verdict.

Her legal team have also argued that some of the victims were above the age of consent in certain states where the abuse occurred.

The Oxford-educated daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell was found guilty on five of six counts, the most serious for sex trafficking minors, late last year.

The charges stemmed from crimes committed against four women between 1994 and 2004.

Prosecutors successfully proved that she was "the key" to Epstein's scheme of enticing young girls to give him massages, during which he would sexually abuse them.

New York judge Alison Nathan described Maxwell's crimes as "heinous and predatory" when she sentenced the 60-year-old last week.

Maxwell's lawyers unsuccessfully argued during her high-profile trial that their client had been pursued by prosecutors only because Epstein had evaded justice.

The money manager hanged himself in jail in 2019 aged 66 while awaiting his own sex crimes trial in New York.

In April, Nathan rejected Maxwell's claim that she should receive a new trial because a juror had boasted of convincing fellow panelists to convict by recalling his own experiences as a sex abuse victim.

Maxwell's circle once included Britain's Prince Andrew, former US president and real estate baron Donald Trump and the Clinton family.